A known connecting-rod comprises a main body and a cap both being held together with bolts or screws and forming an opening in which are fitted bearing shells and in which pass a crankpin. The joining surfaces between the main body and cap are either machined or fractured and lie in planes substantially perpendicular to the axis of the bolt or screw which passes through the respective surface. The main body comprises a stem which connects an opening at one end, the small connecting-rod eye, to part of an opening at the other end, the big end, the remaining part of this opening being formed in the cap, and this stem has ribs, either joined with a web or otherwise, which connect the two openings. The bearing shells are held in the opening by means of a radial pressure due to an interference between the outer surface of the bearing shell and the inner surface of the opening, the inner surface of the opening extending in a direction parallel to the crankpin axis over a greater amount than the bearing shells.